According to a 2025 Gallup poll, a record-low share of U.S. adults say they are “extremely” (41%) or “very” (17%) proud to be an American. Another poll reveals a surge in the popularity of socialism, a collectivist political system incompatible with American democracy. Among Democrats, only 36% are extremely or very proud to be American, socialism is favored over capitalism 66% to 42%, and a majority would leave the country rather than fight if put in the same position as the Ukrainians.
America’s eroding national pride comes as the Chinese Communist Party poses the greatest external challenge in United States history. China’s military and nuclear modernization, economic capacity, and technological advancements rightfully concern those who desire America to remain the world’s indispensable nation.
But just as concerning as China closing the gap in the traditional key determinants of national strength is the alarming reality that many Americans no longer view their country as exceptional. Combating the pride deficit is imperative if the United States is to summon the unity and endurance needed to compete effectively with the CCP.
CHINA’S SURGING NUCLEAR THREAT DEMANDS NEW DETERRENCE
The CCP recognizes that citizens lacking national pride are less likely to fight for their country, and countries with too many such citizens are destined for insularity and crippling infighting. That is why China, while avoiding direct confrontation, is committed to weakening the United States from within to undermine America’s military and economic primacy and corrode the magnetic pull of its free system. After all, how can a nation whose citizens doubt its worth sustain the hard and soft power strength needed to deter an adversary hellbent on its decline?
Right now, CCP efforts to weaken American society include stealing intellectual property, flooding communities with fentanyl, compromising critical infrastructure, buying farmland, and even operating secret police stations to intimidate the Chinese diaspora.
Beyond these physical and economic intrusions, the CCP uses social media manipulation, party-run influence networks, and intelligence operations to exacerbate the partisan divide and erode faith in our democracy. Beijing’s goal is to diminish American resolve so it can actualize its near-term ambitions, such as seizing Taiwan with impunity and eventually supplanting the U.S. as the country that most determines international norms.
As China’s power grows amid what it perceives as inevitable American decline, the regime feels increasingly emboldened to pursue the position of centrality on the global stage to which it feels entitled. With that confidence, the CCP has begun to reveal the governing style that would define a Sinocentric world order.
Domestically, CCP rule is characterized by policies Americans should find abhorrent: the mass detention and genocide of Uyghurs; pervasive surveillance and social control; severe restrictions on speech, press, assembly, and dissent; forced Sinicization of faiths; the institutionalized use of forced labor; and legal and extralegal repression. With control as the ultimate currency, human rights abuses are not bugs in the system but rather a key and deliberate feature.
Abroad, the CCP orients its foreign policy around coercion rather than cooperation, acting according to the view that “the strong do what they will and the weak suffer what they must.” Militaristic expansionism targets neighboring states like Japan, India, and the Philippines, and exploitative economic coercion is employed against nations like Australia, Lithuania, and many across the Global South. Further aggression is constrained only by Beijing’s current perception that the United States maintains military superiority and hasn’t yet fully lost the political will to fight.
Without American military, economic, and technological dominance and the national pride and political will that sustain them, the CCP’s aggression will only grow more dangerous. In America, elements of this future are already visible: dependence on Chinese supply chains raises costs and hollows out industries, companies, and universities eager to appease Beijing engage in pervasive self-censorship, and our youth are inundated with CCP propaganda. Unless they are stopped, Chinese standards, not America’s democratic principles, may increasingly set the terms of our freedom.
Protected by favorable geography, abundant natural resources, and decades of military supremacy, Americans have grown complacent. Many assume that history inexorably moves toward progress and that our freedoms and rights are a given, rather than a privilege that must be fought for by every generation. The threat we face is real, and we can and will lose if we don’t take the steps needed to win. It’s time to recognize that national pride is not just a healthy characteristic for a thriving society, but a strategic resource in great-power competition and a necessary condition for survival in the conflict with China.
OPINION: THE US CAN’T DEFEND TAIWAN WITHOUT TAIWAN
To prevail against China and rebuild American pride requires institutions that work and a government that delivers on the promise that the next generation will be more prosperous than the last. And it requires leaders who inspire confidence in the nation’s purpose and promise, an education system that teaches our virtues alongside our imperfections, and citizens who understand that freedom endures only when it is valued.
The contest with the CCP will test every aspect of our society and must be met with conviction. If we fail to believe in the American idea and unite in pride for the country we call home, the free world will not hold. The American spirit has been tested before, but never by such a formidable foe. We can and will win, but only so long as we believe that we should.
Rob Pierce served as a naval intelligence officer and has worked on Capitol Hill and at the State Department. He holds degrees from Wake Forest University and Georgetown University. He is currently a Vice President at American Global Strategies.
